Homemade Tofu Recipe

Homemade Tofu Recipe, today I’m going to share how to prepare Tofu at home with step by step pictures. Preparing method is similar to making paneer / cottage cheese. We prepare paneer from milk and tofu is prepared from soy milk. You can either use store bought soy milk to prepare tofu or use yellow soya beans to first extract milk and then use that milk to prepare tofu.

Tofu has a low calorie count and relatively large amounts of protein. It is high in iron. Tofu, also known as bean curd, is a food made by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into soft white blocks. It is a component in East Asian and Southeast Asian cuisines. There are many different varieties of tofu, including fresh tofu and tofu that has been processed in some way. Tofu is bought or made to be soft, firm, or extra firm. Tofu has a subtle flavor and can be used in savory and sweet dishes. It is often seasoned or marinated to suit the dish. – “Wikipedia”

I have referred gayathricookspot blog for the recipe. If you follow the steps exactly, you will get perfect tofu. Though it need some patience if you are preparing from the scratch. All you need is a yellow soya beans, citric acid (lemon), water, vessel and cotton cloth to strain. I have not tried it with white soya beans. With 200 gms of soya beans, I extracted 700 ml of soy milk and got 175 gms of Tofu. Tofu can be used in the place of paneer to prepare any Indian style recipes.

Yields 175 gms Tofu

Cooking time: 70 mins

Ingredients:

200 gms yellow soya beans

juice of 2 lemons

water

Method:

Soak soya beans in enough water for 8 hours or overnight. Next day, drain the water completely and grind soya beans in a mixer to smooth fine paste adding enough water. Transfer this to a large vessel. Add enough water to bring it to milk like consistency.

Heat the vessel on low medium flame. Once it starts boiling, switch to low flame and let it boil for another 15-20 mins. Keep stirring it frequently. Remove from the heat. Strain the soy milk through a cotton cloth. The liquid you get is soy milk & the solid part is called as “okara”. (Okara can be used in cakes, muffins, cookies, etc)

Transfer the soy milk to another vessel and heat on low-medium flame. Once it starts boiling, add lemon juice and stir well. Let it sit for another 5-10 mins. The milk will curdle. Remove from the heat and strain through cloth. The solid part is tofu. You can discard water.

Now, wrap tofu in a cloth just like we do to prepare paneer / cottage cheese. Keep the cloth wrapped tofu on a flat surface. Keep another plate above tofu and keep some heavy weight above that. You can keep mortar pestle or any heavy object. Let it sit for 30 mins. Cut it into cubes and use it.